འཕགས་པ་དན་དམ་པའ་ཆས་ཀྱས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 5

5

Why will the world be consumed by apocalyptic fire at the end of the eon?¹⁴ At that time, in what realm will sentient beings gather? Within that realm, what is the size of the subtle soul that resides there? Is it a cubit? Is it a finger span? Is it the size of a forefinger, a thumb, a grain of barley, a grain of wheat, a black gram, a sesame seed, or a mustard seed? Please tell me how big this subtle soul within that realm is.”

The Bhagavān responded to the great seer Ulka, “Excellent, Great Seer. Excellent. These questions asked by this great seer—who is in fact sixty eons old—are felicitous.”

Now the assembly of great seers became amazed, thinking, “How did he know the great seer Ulka’s age without being told? Even we who have lived with him for a long time did not know it!”

The Bhagavān continued, “Great seers, listen to me carefully and pay attention, and I will explain. Great Seer, you asked me what is the origin of sentient beings’ life; about that, there is no verbal account. What we call a sentient being is one who is born from the condition of ignorance and who persists until old age and death. Great Seer, alternatively, one can say that a sentient being is born from causes and conditions, and those causes and conditions are the parents. Great Seer, the union of the parents is the cause. And whenever there is entry into the body of a woman caused by the karmic winds, themselves impelled by concepts, that is the condition.

Great Seer, the truths of the noble ones—suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path one travels to end suffering—are a sentient being. The five appropriated aggregates and the eighteen constituent elements are a sentient being. Great Seer, a sentient being is nothing other than karma, and karma is nothing other than a sentient being. Great Seer, a sentient being neither diminishes nor develops.”

The great seer asked, “O Gautama, if a sentient being neither diminishes nor develops, how could sentient beings become sovereign after transmigrating from a previous rebirth, such as that of a dog?”